Our heroes Blacklisters have returned, time to get weird. The Leeds’ based band released a new EP, Leisure Centre, the first of several, capturing a weekend of live-in-the-studio recordings. The band’s bold sense of humor and utter depravity remain unparalleled, thanks to piercing guitar attacks and dense as concrete rhythms, the entire thing slinking and convulsing in a slow motion tornado of filth and smirks. There’s a sense of exploration to these recordings, a changing of the formula that incorporates strains of no wave and post-punk into the band’s venomous noise rock boogie. Blacklisters offer odes to yuppy ideals, self-serious assholes, and audacious posturing, and it’s all just so damn welcome. Billy Mason-Wood continues to prove himself the best vocalist, hanging on notes and slurring words until they feel utterly manic and potentially dangerous. The fusion of all four members (and plenty of obliterating guest sax) comes together perfectly, violently raw and mischievously charming. - DG